Gov. Patrick: Initiative would produce thousands of housing units

Gov. Deval L. Patrick announced yesterday to a packed room at the DCU Center an ambitious initiative designed to produce thousands of homes per year.

“Today, I am challenging us all, government and private sector partners alike, to produce 10,000 multifamily housing units every year. … That means by 2020 across the state we should see 80,000 new multifamily units,” Mr. Patrick said. “We can do this. In fact, we have to do this. By working to strengthen and expand our current initiatives and through great collaborations with organizations and agencies all across the state, we can meet this challenge.”

At “Under One Roof,” the state’s first Housing and Community Development conference in more than a decade, Mr. Patrick detailed the new Compact Neighborhoods program. The goal of 10,000 new housing units per year was set after collaborating with the Metropolitan Area Planning Council and the Kitty and Michael Dukakis Center for Urban and Regional Policy at Northeastern University.

“To meet the needs of our workforce, we need more housing for middle- and moderate-income families, more housing,” Mr. Patrick said. “We need more multifamily homes, rental apartments and starter homes. And we need these homes near jobs, near transit and near city and town centers.”

The Compact Neighborhoods program complements smart-growth programs by providing incentives to encourage residential development near transit and town centers. The program will recognize communities systematically planning for economic and housing growth and will offer Chapter 40B relief and priority consideration in discretionary funding programs, such as the MassWorks Infrastructure Program.

Mr. Patrick said that thanks to a consistent and disciplined strategy of investing in education, innovation and infrastructure, the state is growing. At times, the growth is as much as twice the national rate, he said.

“Consistently, for four or more years through and coming out of the great recession, our commonwealth has been getting stronger, steadily adding jobs and growing the middle class,” Mr. Patrick said. “A successful growth strategy is never about just one thing; … it’s never about just one investment policy or one tax incentive or one new road or rail line. …Housing is one of those inter-connective elements because a growing economy needs to accommodate a growing workforce.”

Mr. Patrick said communities flourish when young families become part of it.

“Housing brings vitality to city and town centers and helps support local business, stronger schools, reliable transportation and attractive open space nearby, alongside decent and affordable housing,” Mr. Patrick said. “All of this, all of these issues connect to grow our economy and our commonwealth. And I need us all to do more.”

In addition, Lt. Gov. Timothy Murray discussed the administration’s commitment to preserving and strengthening affordable housing for residents, particularly veterans. Mr. Murray also discussed the administration’s reforms of the emergency assistance program, which is designed to increase investments in preventing homelessness and expanding permanent housing solutions.

The “Under One Roof” conference was a full-day event focused on housing issues, including emergency housing assistance, the state’s public housing program and the plans to grow the state’s housing stock. Approximately 1,000 people attended the conference, which included sessions hosted by state, nonprofit and private-development housing leaders.